The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may not constitute prior art.
Known vehicles include a vehicle control system configured to receive and use states of parameters obtained from in-vehicle and extra-vehicle sources that can affect operation of one or more vehicle subsystems. Known vehicle control systems use deterministic control schemes to control operation of vehicle subsystems. Known deterministic control schemes include monitoring states of in-vehicle and extra-vehicle parameters and determining control inputs for one or more control parameters of a vehicle subsystem based thereon.
Extra-vehicle parameters can originate from on-vehicle sensing systems and information transferred from external sources such as satellite broadcasts, smart traffic signals, highway information systems, terrestrial radio broadcasts, peer-to-peer computer networks, navigation system databases, digital map databases, and databases comprising like information. Extra-vehicle parameters can include traffic and environmental conditions, including, e.g., information associated with an expected travel route, weather information, road condition information, and traffic information. The weather information can include levels of water, snow, or ice on the road along with wind speed and wind direction. The traffic information can include traffic density and traffic flow rates of automobiles, bicycles, and pedestrians, and presence of construction projects, vehicle collisions, traffic signals, and like events.
In-vehicle parameters can originate from on-vehicle sensing systems, and can include parameters related to powertrain operation, ride and handling, HVAC, and others. Furthermore there can be historical data related to the in-vehicle and extra-vehicle parameters comprising previously recorded information.
Known vehicle subsystems operate in operating modes characterized by system states with associated state transition discontinuities, hysteresis, transition lag times, and penalties associated with exceeding thresholds. Known vehicle subsystem states include engine transitions between on and off, engine transitions between operating in spark ignition combustion modes, controlled auto-ignition combustion modes, and stratified charge combustion modes and associated engine operation at stoichiometry and lean of stoichiometry. Known vehicle subsystem states include a state of charge of an energy storage device, and an associated allowable range for the state of charge. Transitions between system states can have associated costs and driveability issues with regard to operator perceptions.
States of in-vehicle and extra-vehicle parameters can have uncertainties associated therewith. The uncertainties related to the states of the in-vehicle and extra-vehicle parameters are introduced when predicting vehicle operation over a time horizon into the future. Thus, states of the in-vehicle and extra-vehicle parameters over the time horizon into the future are probabilistic, and the in-vehicle and extra-vehicle parameters are stochastic variables. Furthermore, certain events and conditions are themselves stochastic processes dependent upon other events and conditions. For example, probability of traffic flow problems due to vehicle collisions increases with bad weather, time of day, e.g., rush hour, and seasons, e.g., holiday periods.